Health-plan seeds

We need health care for all, but why establish a whole new bureaucracy to provide it? We already have Medicare, with years of experience, which could be gradually expanded. For example, each year, we could drop the age for eligibility by three years -- 62, 59, 56. We would soon learn the exact cost of health care for all and therefore assign a health care tax appropriate to the ability to pay. Possibly the health care tax could be an adjunct to the income tax, tapping into an existing collection system.

With experience, the eligibility timetable and the health care tax could be adjusted as appropriate. Employers would gradually reduce their obligations to their employee health plans, making their companies more competitive. This could help the auto industry, for example, which is getting killed by the cost of health plans.

This plan is only a seed that needs planting. If we nurtured that plant and allowed it to bloom, we might be surprised at its beauty.